NBER Working Papers and Publications

Chronic pain clearly lowers utility, but it is empirically challenging to estimate the monetary compensation needed to offset this utility reduction. We use the subjective well-being method to estimate the value of pain relief among individuals age 50 and older. We use a sample of 64,205 observations from 4 waves (2008-2014) of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative individual-level survey data, permitting us to control for individual heterogeneity. Our models, which allow for nonlinear effects in income, show the value of avoiding pain ranging between 56 to 145 USD per day. These results are lower than previously reported, suggesting that the value of pain relief varies by income levels. Thus, previous estimates of the value of pain relief assuming constant monetary ...

This study uses individual-level longitudinal data from Iceland, a country that experienced a severe economic crisis in 2008 and substantial recovery by 2012, to investigate the extent to which the effects of a recession on health behaviors are lingering or short-lived and to explore trajectories in health behaviors from pre-crisis boom, to crisis, to recovery. Health-compromising behaviors (smoking, heavy drinking, sugared soft drinks, sweets, fast food, and tanning) declined during the crisis, and all but sweets continued to decline during the recovery. Health-promoting behaviors (consumption of fruit, fish oil, and vitamin/ minerals and getting recommended sleep) followed more idiosyncratic paths. Overall, most behaviors reverted back to their pre-crisis levels or trends during the reco...

This study exploits the October 2008 economic crisis in Iceland to identify the effects of a macroeconomic downturn on a range of health behaviors. Using longitudinal survey data that include pre- and post- reports from the same individuals, we investigate the effects of the crisis on smoking, heavy drinking, dietary behaviors, sleep, and other health behaviors and investigate changes in work hours, real income, wealth, and mental health as potential mediators. We also consider the role of prices in shaping health behaviors and compute participation elasticities for the various behaviors. We find that the crisis led to reductions in all health-compromising behaviors examined and that it led to reductions in certain health-promoting behaviors but increases in others. The individual-level me...